


baby, it's cold outside

by lostmemoria



Series: veena's fic extravaganza [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Confiding, F/M, Kid Fic, Snow, Winter, sad pasts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 02:44:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5399930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostmemoria/pseuds/lostmemoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You do know that it’s 2 degrees outside, right?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby, it's cold outside

**Author's Note:**

> **marrish** \+ [4:](http://lydiasdeputy.tumblr.com/post/134904568787/marrish-holiday-prompt-4-pls) “You’re my new neighbor and we’ve never spoken but you saw me shoveling snow all day and I guess it must be pretty obvious how cold I am because you brought me a jacket and hot cocoa AU”
> 
> title not based off the song whatsoever! i thought it just fit with the fic well :)

“You do know that it’s 2 degrees outside, right?”

Jordan’s been shoveling snow for most of the day because for some reason the snow just loves to pile up all in front of his driveway, making it difficult to take his car out. He’s been so busy with it too, barely even noticing how cold it is (partially, because his body is mostly numb from it now) that when he hears the voice he jumps out of his skin and trips, falling into the snow.

“Oh god, are you okay?”

He blinks and finds himself looking into a pair of big hazel eyes looking down at him worriedly as the woman purses her lips. He recognizes her as his new neighbor who just moved in next door a week ago with her four or five year old daughter. “I think I just realized how cold 2 degrees really is,” he says, because the snow is absolutely  _freezing._

His comment makes her chuckle as she offers him a hand, helping him back on to his feet. “Good, because when I saw you shoveling snow out here at seven in the morning, I was sure you were going to freeze your ass off. And letting my neighbor freeze their ass off wouldn’t make me such a good neighbor either, would it?” A smile plays on her lips and he can’t help but blush.

“I’m Jordan by the way,” he introduces bashfully, extending his hand out.

“Lydia.” They shake hands and Jordan can’t help but notice how beautiful she is, her long strawberry blonde curls spilling down her shoulders and cute dimples showing when she smiles. She lets go first and then asks, “By the way, aren’t you cold?”

“A little,” he replies, scraping the snow off himself. He can feel it now, the cold wet slush of the snow melting seeping into the back of his jacket. Compared to him, she’s all bundled up with hat, scarf, and multiple layers of coats and fleece.

“Here, take this.” She takes off her first layer, and it’s only when she hands it to him does he realize it’s actually a man’s coat. He suspects its her husbands’ or boyfriends’ but he’s never seen anyone around her house besides her and her daughter. He tries to tell her that it’s okay, but she insists and he ends up putting it on, reveling in the warmth of the fabric. Lydia also hands him the thermos that she was holding, telling him it’s filled with hot cocoa.

He takes a sip. The chocolatey goodness with a hint of peppermint fills his senses while the drink warms up his body. He smiles at her. “Thanks, but you really didn’t have to you know,” he tells her when she says that she personally came over to give it to him.

Lydia shrugs her shoulders and bites back a smile. “Too bad, I wanted to. And besides, just think of it as now you owe me a favor.”

He chuckles. “Yes, ma'am.”

She opens her mouth again to say something but then there’s a yell from her front yard, “Mama! Come look at my snow angel!”

Jordan sees a head of bright red curls peeking out from over the fence between their houses and he figures that it’s her daughter.

“Coming, sweetheart!” Lydia calls back, before turning towards him with an apologetic look, but he stops her before she can actually apologize.

“Hey, no, it’s okay. Go and make a snow angel with her.” He gives her a reassuring smile and then says, “Thanks for the coat and hot chocolate again.”

She returns the smile before walking away and Jordan’s gaze can’t help but linger on her until she reaches her yard where he watches her scoop her daughter up into her arms. They look alike, both with bright red hair and hazel eyes. It makes him smile as he looks away, going back to shoveling the snow while trying to ignore the feeling of longing and nostalgia that’s settled somewhere in his heart once more.

-

 

A few days later, it snows again. Just enough that when he wakes up that Friday morning and looks out the window, there’s a pile of snow sitting on his driveway, almost mockingly.

He shovels for about thirty minutes before he hears a car pull up in the driveway next door. It’s Lydia’s blue Prius, the same one he saw her unpack boxes from when she was moving in. She gets out of the car and helps her daughter out, who’s carrying her pink Little Mermaid backpack as they make their way up the front steps to the door. It’s only around eight in the morning so he figures that school was probably cancelled because of the weather. It doesn’t surprise him since that usually happens whenever the season comes around and the snow sets in.

He’s about to go back to shoveling when he hears her say, “Damn it!” He raises his head and sees Lydia searching through her purse with an annoyed expression while her daughter hugs her leg, cold.

He decides to walk over towards the fence to see what’s wrong. “Everything alright?”

Lydia’s head shoots up towards him and he sees the flustered expression that crosses her features momentarily. “I locked us out,” she says sheepishly. “And I haven’t had the time to make a spare key.”

“You can come over. I can give you the number for a locksmith and you guys can stay outta the cold that way too,” he says, hesitating slightly because he doesn’t want to give her the wrong idea but at the same time he can’t stand to see her and her daughter stand out in the cold.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to be a bother,” she says, biting her lip.

He smiles reassuring at her, “You won’t be a bother. And besides, I owe you a favor. And exactly what kind of neighbor would I be if I let you guys freeze out here in the cold?”

Lydia smiles back warmly at him before looking down at her daughter and brushing her hair aside. “Is that okay with you, Ally?”

Ally looks at her mother before turning to look at him and asks, “Do you have hot cocoa?”

Jordan can’t help but smile wide. “I’ve got plenty.”

-

 

It doesn’t take him long to figure out that both Lydia and her daughter are hot chocolate enthusiasts and Disney Christmas movie lovers. He’s just glad that he didn’t put the movies in the basement last year and that he stocked up on hot cocoa mix because they’re both on their third cup now as they all sit on the couch watching Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas.

The locksmith calls Lydia back, tells her that he’ll be done late in the afternoon so after watching the movie, they have lunch together. They eat the leftover lasagna that he made yesterday and he can’t remember the last time in the past three years that he’s ate lunch with someone else at his dining table.

“Is that your  _Christmas Tree?_ ” Ally asks, pointing at the miniature tree sitting at his window sill, pathetically decorated with lights and cheap ornaments. When he nods, she says, “It’s so tiny.”

“Ally.” Lydia warns, but Jordan doesn’t mind.

“It’s fine,” he says before smiling at Ally. “Yeah, it’s a tiny tree. But I like it.” He does in fact like it; it saves him time from taking out the boxes of ornaments in the garage and hanging them up on a huge tree along with lights, or going down to the Christmas Tree farm nearly three hours away and chopping one down like he always used to.

There was a time when he used to love doing all that, but it’s not fun when you have to do it alone.

“It looks okay,” Ally says before stuffing her mouth with more pasta and swallowing. “But…How come it doesn’t have a star? All Christmas trees have to have a star!”

It’s only when she mentions it that Jordan realizes that she’s right. He forgot to put a star on it. “I…I must of forgot.”

“Can I put it on?” Ally asks, excitedly. “Mommy always lets me put the star on the tree.”

From the corner of his eye he can see Lydia smile. It makes him smile too as he nods, “Yeah. Of course.”

He gets up and walks over to the counter, opening a drawer and pulling out a golden star. He hands it to her, seeing the sparkle in her eyes as she takes it and rushes over to the window sill. She gets on her tiptoes and tries to extend her arm out as much as she can to place the star on top, but even then she can’t reach it. Lydia gets up to help her but he’s already stepping closer to Ally, picking her up without another hesitation. “I got it,” he says, raising her so that she can finally place the star on.

“Yay! See, now that’s a Christmas tree,” she says with a smile and Jordan sees that her front teeth missing.

He smiles and sets her down, his gaze falling on her before looking up at Lydia. She’s still standing there, but the expression on her face is different. She’s smiling, but it’s a different type of smile. It’s a mixture of happiness but also sadness and it’s something he’s seen too many times on himself in the mirror.

He finally turns back to Ally and says, “Yeah. It is.”

-

 

After lunch, Lydia helps him wash dishes.

Ally’s in his living room, playing with some toys from a box that he still hadn’t put away in the basement. He knew that as soon as he took it out, it would make Lydia curious, and he was right.

“Do you have kids?” She asks, and he starts to feel the lump growing in this throat.

“I used to.”

Her hand freezes from drying the plate she’s holding and he feels her gaze on him. He already knows the question coming next. “Used to?”

He stops washing the plate in his hands. “T…They—my wife and daughter passed away in a car crash. Three years ago. They were hit by a drunk driver.”

The curious expression on her face falls at the sound of his words. She touches his wrist, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to take you to a bad place.”

He smiles at her sadly. “It’s okay, really. I….Of course I miss them everyday and sometimes I wonder how I’m even alive right now, still breathing, still walking around, but then I realize that that’s what they would have wanted me to do. Move on. Continue living.”

Her thumb strokes across his palm soothingly. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. They would be so proud of you. I know that for a fact because I had someone leave me too. They didn’t pass away but they left me when I needed them the most because they couldn’t handle their responsibilities. And that really, really hurt. I didn’t think I could raise Ally alone but she believed in me so much that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her. The ones who love you the most will always believe in you and be proud of you.”

Hearing her say that, Jordan knows that she’s talking about Ally’s father. And this time he lets his fingers twine with hers comfortingly, squeezing lightly and she lets him. “Thank you, really. It means a lot…You’re a really strong and confident person.”

Lydia smiles. “Well, I’d like to say that 100% of that is because of everything I’ve been through and that I still managed to get through it. But truthfully, 10% of it has to do with the fact that when I divorced my husband after I found out he was cheating on me, I made damn sure he would pay me in child support. And of course, I won. So I think that gives me every right to be a bit confident and maybe a little smug too.”

She laughs and Jordan does too, and after a long time, things actually seem to be okay for once.

-

 

When Lydia’s about to leave with Ally to pick up the spare key at the locksmith, Jordan gives her the box of his daughter’s toys that have been sitting in his closet for far too long.

“I—I can’t take this,” Lydia immediately says, shocked.

“Yeah, you can,” he says softly, handing her the box. “I won’t regret it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Are all those toys for me?” Ally asks, jaw dropping in surprise but also excitement.

He grins. “Yeah. Merry early Christmas, kiddo.”

Ally squeals as she looks through the box and Lydia smiles, watching her before turning back to look at him. “Thanks.”

He shakes his head, telling her that it’s no problem and she finally asks, “Are you doing anything this Christmas?” When he shakes his head again—because really, he’s spent the last three years spending Christmas alone—Lydia suggests, “We aren’t either. Maybe, if you want, you can come over. I can make dinner this time.  _But,_  only if you bring your Disney Christmas movies collection.” Another smile plays on her lips and Jordan can’t help but smile wider.

“Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://lydiasdeputy.tumblr.com)


End file.
